Adoption Math

There are some givens:
1. The CCAA issues a batch of referrals monthly.
2. The CCAA has matched thru LID 7/22/05
3. The CCAA has averaged 12 LID's per batch over the past year.
4. I have already waited 8 months.

So....let's see...the CCAA has to match 151 LID's before I receive my match. Assuming things continue with the same 12 LID's per month average, I will receive my referral in September 2007. That is 13 months from now bringing my total wait to 21 months.

That also means I'm not even half way thru my wait. hmph.

If I'm feeling optimistic, I can hope the average LID"s per month will double over the next year (Hardy-har-har!!) But that would give me a referral in March 2006. That's 7 months from now making my total wait only 15 months. (Only 15 months! Haa haa, I'm killing myself here!!)

This is how a bored mailman kills time in that truck. Doing math in my head. It took me three subdivisions to figure all that out.

I've always hated math.

CCAA Review

Our dossier has been reviewed! Yeah! I know this because our agency called us today to inform us we had been flagged. We had problems in our dossier. Nothing big. It's already been handled.

This makes me nervous, of course because we didn't sail right thru review. I had fantasies similar to Ralphie's in A Christmas Story when the teacher took one look at his essay and went into a fit of joyous praise. A++++++. I just knew a worker would take one look at my dossier and rush it to the director. "Look at this beaut !! The best dossier EVER. These folks were meant to be parents and they can jump right to the front of the line. Get them the best baby in all China Now!" Oh well.

It also makes me very happy because the problem has been solved and now I know for certain that someone in China has had my dossier in his hands. Has looked it over. Has seen my picture. And very soon I'll be on to the next step......more waiting.

For your entertainment, here are the photos he saw. And presumably the one's he will use to match us with our baby. I look scared. Jeff looks surly. And we both look like we just robbed a bank dressed in black.

Special Delivery???

Most days at the post office are pretty boring. A co-worker has a shirt that says, "Sort. Deliver. Repeat." And that's really what it is. Some days you want to tear your hair out with the intense boredom. The same 500 houses day after day after ever-lovin' day.

Every now and then something shakes up the routine. Like when the single mom who looks like a stripper started her subscription to Penth@use. Or when a customer yelled at me so bad it made me cry. Or my favorite, when a customer writes me a note about how great I am. (Yes, it really happens!)

But today was a real winner. I get called to the accountable room to pick up my accountables. (things that have to be signed for) and I get a box of someone's cremated remains. It said it right on the box. "Handle Carefully. Cremated Remains." I knew the genteman had died because his wife started getting all these cards. You can just tell. He was a nice old guy that always walked the neighborhood and always waved at me. They also donate a lot to animal charities. (Your mailman knows a lot about you, btw)

At first I was creeped out. Do you put it with the rest of your packages or let him ride up front? And is the wife going to start a long conversation about her husbands death? Do I offer my condolances or pretend I don't know what's (who's?) in the box?

In the end, the wife was very nice. The whole thing was painless, if a bit awkward.

It did liven up the day. (oh look, I punned)

8 month LID anniversary

Not much more to say about that. Just happened to look at a calendar and remembered.

How much longer?

4 months? Not likely
6 months? Ummm, possible.
8 months? Could be.
10 months? Most likely.
12 more months? Oh God, please no.

Why 12 sounds so much more than 10, I'm not sure.

Referrals should be out soon and with every referral batch we have a better idea. Let's all hope for a great big batch.

Poor Bonnie

During our internet-free week, we got a lot done. New Garage doors. New windows. I took a few days off, but the biggest event was the care of sick Bonnie. Poor little baby. She had these tumors. The vet said they should be looked at, so we agreed to surgery knowing ahead of time we wouldn't do crazy things to prolong her life (Shes' 11). (Gosh that makes me sad just to write)

So we took her to the vet in the morning and picked her up that afternoon. She seemed fine. Then as the pain stuff wore off, our girl was clearly miserable. She wouldn't sit or lie down. You could tell she was exhausted. She would try to go down and then snap back up again. So off we go to the emergency vet where we wait 2 hours and pay crazy prices to get pain killers. It took a lot of work to put her to sleep. Finally we were able to flip her over and hold her down, petting and loving her until she fell asleep on her back. We make a pillow bed where she slept for hours.


If I had to do it again, I'm not sure I'd have had the tumors out. It was miserable. If they turn out to be cancerous and they got it all... fine. If they need to get more.....ummm, not sure if we'll do it again. If they turn out not to have been cancerous, of course I'll be thrilled, but pissed we put her thru this.

Now she's on a codeine type medicine and just fine. She's stuck in the Elizabethan collar until the stitches come out , but is adjusting fine. Cuddle time with Daddy makes everything better. Jeff doesn't look happy about it, but he likes cuddle time, too.

Ahhhh....

After almost a full week of "internet-less-ness" , we are back online!!!

Some things I learned while we had no internet:

1. The internet is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity.
2. I spent way too much time surfing blogs and other adoption stuff. I'll try to cut back on this, but it will be hard.

PRESENTS!!!

It's Secret Pal time again!! The theme this month was "Travel to China" And my pal did a great job with disposable bibs, a great travel book that's full of extra tidbits, and a map of China. We'd been wanting a map, so this was a super gift.


My other present was from Mom! She got me a subsription to Rachel Ray's magazine. You know what this means? More food posts! Lucky you! Thanks, Mom.

Adoption Reading

I finally got this book. It's recommended reading when thinking about adoption from China, so I'm a little late.

I have a tendency to get emotional when I think about my daughter being abandoned. Most of the time, I have an ability to ignore the fact that that has to happen before she can come to me. But it's going to be an important part of her life and something I need to educate myself about. So here goes....

GA's new toy

First, here's the commercial for my new toy:

Nike + ipod


It's the coolest thing e-ver!


You buy the sport kit which has the sensor you put in your specially made Nike running shoe which is marketing genius. Or like me, you velcro it to your current pair of Adidas. (I hate Nike. They're made for people with narrow feet, unlike my paddles) The sport kit also has the receiver which plugs into your ipod nano. It must be a nano. I had to upgrad my shuffle. Once again, marketing genius.


Then as you run, it gives you updates on time, distance, and pace. You can preset workouts based on goals of time, distance, or calories. You plug in your weight. Calibrate it for your stride, and off you go. There's a power song option for when you need an extra boost. It will play your power song for you. (Mine is currently Numb-Encore by Linkin Park w/ Jay-Z)

When you get home you download the data thru the nano and can see your pace over the course of the run. You can establish long term goals for yourself. When you meet them it gives you "trophies" for your "trophy case". The interface is just awesome!

The other day I did a 4 miler and at the end it said to me, "Congratulations, that was your longest work out so far." Such a motivator. I wanna go run farther so I can hear it again.

Jeff and I are going to the park as soon as it cools off.

Nike + ipod = waycool!!